Bangladesh Fight from Partition to Liberation

• The partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947 created two independent countries: India and Pakistan. India, which became independent on 15 August 1947, stood for a secular, equitable polity based on the universally accepted idea that all men are created equal and should be treated as such. Pakistan, which officially came into existence a day earlier, was based on the premise that Hindus and Muslims of the Subcontinent constitute two different nationalities and cannot co-exist. East Pakistan (Bangladesh) has been subjected to colonial rule and exploitation by a power-mad minority which has built up an authoritarian pattern of government even in the metropolitan area the West Pakistan. But East Bengal was never a sub nation, not only does it has a majority of Muslims but also shaped into national identity. Pakistan always claims East Bengal to be its province; a dictatorial regime in the metropolitan country which used the argument of religious affinity to bolster its claim to colonial domination over a distinct and different people. JINNAH-his political capital was the Indo-Muslim consciousness and his political outlook was all-Indian largely because of the nature of the all-India Muslim league. This league readily accepted the cabinet mission plan of 1946 promising to create a loose conferral structure in India. He created an impossible problem of identity (image of absurd state created by British before their withdrawal in 1947) for the new state-a problem of identity which successive governments tried to resolve in terms of a nationalism based on religion and sustained by unabated hostility towards India. East Bengal was represented in the constitutional assembly of Pakistan by the hard core conservative elements of the Muslim league including a number of members from India. The Indo-Muslims migrant elite succeeded in holding the two wings of Pakistan by manipulating the Indo-Islamic consciousness created in 1947. The attitude of the West Pakistan to the East Pakistan was so hard that they couldn’t accept Bengali as their national language and visa versa, and resulted in a violent agitation when the Basic Principle Committee recommended urdu as the national language. The USA and the West supported Pakistan with enormous military support which was not supported by the Bengalis as they had less support in bureaucracy and military. Caught between the pressure exerted by the army, bureaucracy, and no support of the people below the politicians of Pakistan lost their grip over the situation and functioned for personal interest rather than larger cause which resulted in the military coup in Oct 1958. The entire benefit of the industrial dev. in Pakistan was limited to only 20 families, this in equitability and oppressive economic structure was not only limited to Pakistan but also East Bengal. this exposed some hidden aspects of the west Pakistani colonialism to the East Bengal also resulted the east Pakistan without defense when the war broke out in 1965 and resulted in the launch of the ‘Agartala Conspiracy Case’ against the leaders. The rise of freedom threw up issues like the internal colonization of some new states, overlooked by the status quo oriented in the international system in order to preserve tenuous system of states in the world. The process of East Pakistan’s isolation was underway when the elections in the East Bengal turned out to be a referendum on the Awami League’s six-point charter of autonomy rather than voter’s choice. The league began immediately after the partition as the revolt of East Bengal’s infant but growing middle-class against the rule of well-entrenched alliance of the top echelons of the army, the bureaucracy and monopoly based in the West Pakistan. One thing is clear that the Pakistan as conceived by Jinnah as one is dead without any chance of correction. Few things getting clear for the future character of East Bengal;
• long freedom struggle waged with help of indigenous support both in terms of human and resources.
• the resistance movement is bound to take a guerilla warfare.
• the actual organization and operation to come into the hands of dedicated and visionary leaders having an ideology to fight against heavy odds.
• the guerilla movement would form a firm base under control of liberation force having located somewhere in north of Bangladesh.
• the remnants of East Pakistan rifles and East Bengal regiment could combine to form the Mukti Fouj which would gradually mix into the general political culture of the guerilla movement.